Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins - Left Behind Series 2 - Tribulation Force

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TRIBULATION FORCE:
The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind
Book 2 of the Left Behind Series
TIM LAHAYE & JERRY B. JENKINS
PROLOGUE
What Has Gone Before ...
In one cataclysmic instant, millions of people all over the world disappeared. They
simply vanished, leaving behind everything material: clothes, eyeglasses, contact
lenses, hairpieces, hearing aids, fillings, jewelry, shoes, even pacemakers and
surgical pins.
Millions vanished. But millions more remained—adults, but no children, and only a
few young teens. All babies, including the unborn, disappeared—some during birth.
Worldwide chaos ensued. Planes, trains, buses, and cars crashed, ships sank, homes
burned, grieving survivors committed suicide. A transportation and communications
gridlock, coupled with the disappearances of many service personnel, left most to
fend for themselves until some semblance of order returned.
Some said the world had been invaded by aliens from outer space. Others said the
disappearances resulted from an enemy attack. And yet every country on the globe
was touched by the disappearances.
Airline captain Rayford Steele and his twenty-year-old daughter Chloe were left
behind. Rayford's wife and their twelve-year-old son vanished. Rayford, piloting a
747 over the Atlantic en route to London, told his senior flight attendant, Hattie
Durham, that he didn't know what had happened. The terrifying truth was that he
knew all too well. His wife had warned him of this very event. Christ had come to
take away his own, and the rest, Rayford and Chloe included, had been left behind.
Rayford became consumed with finding the truth and making sure that he and Chloe
would not miss any second chance. He felt responsible for her skepticism, for her
believe-only-what-you-can-see-and-feel attitude.
His search took him to his wife's church, where a handful of people, including even
one on the pastoral staff, had been left behind. Visitation Pastor Bruce Barnes had
lost his wife and children, and he, above all others, knew immediately that his weak,
phony faith had failed him at the most critical instant of his life. In a single moment,
he became the most convinced skeptic on earth—an enthusiastic, unapologetic
evangelist.
Under Bruce's tutelage and the influence of a videotape the senior pastor had left for
just such a time, first Rayford and then Chloe came to believe in Christ. With their
new pastor they formed what they call the Tribulation Force, a core group
determined to challenge the forces of evil during the Tribulation period predicted in
the Bible.
Meanwhile, Cameron—“Buck”—Williams, a senior staff writer for the prestigious
newsmagazine Global Weekly, was on a quest of his own. Buck had been aboard
Rayford Steele's plane when the Rapture occurred, and he was assigned to make
some sense of the worldwide disappearances. His interviewing brought him into
contact with one of the most powerful and charismatic personalities ever, the
mysterious Romanian leader, Nicolae Carpathia. Within two weeks of the
vanishings, Carpathia was swept to international power as head of the United
Nations, promising to unite the devastated globe as one peaceful village.
Buck introduced flight attendant Hattie Durham to Carpathia, who quickly made her
his personal assistant. After coming to faith in Christ under the influence of
Rayford, Chloe, and Bruce, Buck felt responsible for Hattie and became desperate
to get her away from Carpathia.
Demoted for allegedly blowing a major assignment, Buck relocated from New York
to Chicago, where he joined Rayford, Chloe, and Bruce as the fourth member of the
Tribulation Force. Together these four have determined to stand and fight against all
odds, to never give in. Representing millions who missed the opportunity to meet
Christ in the air, they have resolved not to lose hold of their newfound faith, no
matter what the future might bring.
Buck Williams has witnessed the murderous evil power of Nicolae Carpathia, and
Bruce Barnes knows from his study of Scripture that dark days lie ahead. The odds
are, only one of the four members of the Tribulation Force will survive the next
seven years.
But only Bruce has more than a hint of the terror to come. If the others knew, they
might not venture so bravely into the future.
CHAPTER ONE
It was Rayford Steele's turn for a break. He pulled the headphones down onto his
neck and dug into his flight bag for his wife's Bible, marveling at how quickly his
life had changed. How many hours had he wasted during idle moments like this,
poring over newspapers and magazines that had nothing to say? After all that had
happened, only one book could hold his interest.
The Boeing 747 was on auto from Baltimore to a four o'clock Friday afternoon
landing at Chicago O'Hare, but Rayford's new first officer, Nick, sat staring ahead
anyway, as if piloting the plane. Doesn't want to talk to me anymore, Rayford
thought. Knew what was coming and shut me down before I opened my mouth.
“Is it going to offend you if I sit reading this for a while?” Rayford asked.
The younger man turned and pulled the left phone away from his own ear. “Say
again?”
Rayford repeated himself, pointing to the Bible. It had belonged to the wife he
hadn't seen for more than two weeks and probably would not see for another seven
years.
“As long as you don't expect me to listen.”
“I got that loud and clear, Nick. You understand I don't care what you think of me,
don't you?”
“Sir?”
Rayford leaned close and spoke louder. “What you think of me would have been
hugely important a few weeks ago,” he said. “But—”
“Yeah, I know, OK? I got it, Steele, all right? You and lots of other people think the
whole thing was Jesus. Not buying. Delude yourself, but leave me out of it.”
Rayford raised his brows and shrugged. “You wouldn't respect me if I hadn't tried.”
“Don't be too sure.”
But when Rayford turned back to his reading, it was the Chicago Tribune sticking
out of his bag that grabbed his attention.
The Tribune, like every other paper in the world, carried the front-page story:
During a private meeting at the United Nations, just before a Nicolae Carpathia
press conference, a horrifying murder/suicide had occurred. New U.N. Secretary-
General Nicolae Carpathia had just installed the ten new members of the expanded
Security Council, seeming to err by inaugurating two men to the same position of
U.N. ambassador from the Great States of Britain.
According to the witnesses, billionaire Jonathan Stonagal, Carpathia's friend and
financial backer, suddenly overpowered a guard; stole his handgun, and shot
himself in the head, the bullet passing through and killing one of the new
ambassadors from Britain.
The United Nations had been closed for the day, and Carpathia was despondent over
the tragic loss of his two dear friends and trusted advisers.
Bizarre as it might seem, Rayford Steele was one of only four people on the planet
who knew the truth about Nicolae Carpathia—that he was a liar, a hypnotic
brainwasher, the Antichrist himself. Others might suspect Carpathia of being other
than he seemed, but only Rayford, his daughter, his pastor, and his new friend
journalist Buck Williams knew for sure.
Buck had been one of the seventeen in that United Nations meeting room. And he
had witnessed something entirely different—not a murder/suicide, but a double
murder. Carpathia himself, according to Buck, had methodically borrowed the
guard's gun, forced his old friend Jonathan Stonagal to kneel, then killed Stonagal
and the British ambassador with one shot.
Carpathia had choreographed the murders, and then, while the witnesses sat in
horror, Carpathia quietly told them what they had seen—the same story the
newspapers now carried. Every witness in that room but one corroborated it. Most
chilling, they believed it. Even Steve Plank, Buck's former boss, now Carpathia's
press agent. Even Hattie Durham, Rayford's onetime flight attendant, who had
become Carpathia's personal assistant. Everyone except Buck Williams.
Rayford had been dubious when Buck told his version in Bruce Barnes's office two
nights ago. “You're the only person in the room who saw it your way?” he had
challenged the writer.
“Captain Steele,” Buck had said, “we all saw it the same way. But then Carpathia
calmly described what he wanted us to think we had seen, and everybody but me
immediately accepted it as truth. I want to know how he explains that he had the
dead man's successor already there and sworn in when the murder took place. But
now there's no evidence I was even there. It's as if Carpathia washed me from their
memories. People I know now swear I wasn't there, and they aren't joking.”
Chloe and Bruce Barnes had looked at each other and then back at Buck. Buck had
finally become a believer, just before entering the meeting at the U.N. “I'm
absolutely convinced that if I had gone into that room without God,” Buck said, “I
would have been reprogrammed too.”
“But now if you just tell the world the truth—”
“Sir, I've been reassigned to Chicago because my boss believes I missed that
meeting. Steve Plank asked why I had not accepted his invitation. I haven't talked to
Hattie yet, but you know she won't remember I was there.”
“The biggest question,” Bruce Barnes said, “is what Carpathia thinks is in your
head. Does he think he's erased the truth from your mind? If he knows you know,
you're in grave danger.”
Now, as Rayford read the bizarre story in the paper, he noticed Nick switching from
autopilot to manual. “Initial descent,” Nick said. “You want to bring her in?”
“Of course,” Rayford said. Nick could have landed the plane, but Rayford felt
responsible. He was the captain. He would answer for these people. And even
though the plane could land itself, he had not lost the thrill of handling it. Few
things reminded him of life as it had been just weeks before, but landing a 747 was
one of them.
Buck Williams had spent the day buying a car—something he hadn't needed in
Manhattan—and hunting for an apartment. He found a beautiful condo, at a place
that advertised already-installed phones, midway between the Global Weekly
Chicago bureau office and New Hope Village Church in Mount Prospect. He tried
to convince himself it was the church that would keep drawing him west of the city,
not Rayford Steele's daughter, Chloe. She was ten years his junior, and whatever
attraction he might feel for her, he was certain she saw him as some sort of a
wizened mentor.
Buck had put off going to the office. He wasn't expected there until the following
Monday anyway, and he didn't relish facing Verna Zee. When it had been his
assignment to find a replacement for veteran Lucinda Washington, the Chicago
bureau chief who had disappeared, he had told the militant Verna she had jumped
the gun by moving into her former boss's office. Now Buck had been demoted and
Verna elevated. Suddenly, she was his boss.
But he didn't want to spend all weekend dreading the meeting, and neither did he
want to appear too eager to see Chloe Steele again right away, so Buck drove to the
office just before closing. Would Verna make him pay for his years of celebrity as
an award-winning cover-story writer? Or would she make it even worse by killing
him with kindness?
Buck felt the stares and smiles of the underlings as he moved through the outer
office. By now, of course, everyone knew what had happened. They felt sorry for
him, were stunned by his lapse of judgment. How could Buck Williams miss a
meeting that would certainly be one of the most momentous in news history, even if
it hadn't resulted in the double death? But they were also aware of Buck's
credentials. Many, no doubt, would still consider it a privilege to work with him.
No surprise, Verna had already moved back into the big office. Buck winked at
Alice, Verna's spike-haired young secretary, and peered in. It looked as if Verna had
been there for years. She had already rearranged the furniture and hung her own
pictures and plaques. Clearly, she was ensconced and loving every minute of it.
A pile of papers littered Verna's desk, and her computer screen was lit, but she
seemed to be idly gazing out the window. Buck poked his head in and cleared his
throat. He noticed a flash of recognition and then a quick recomposing. “Cameron,”
she said flatly, still seated. “I didn't expect you till Monday.”
“Just checking in,” he said. “You can call me Buck.”
“I'll call you Cameron, if you don't mind, and—”
“I do mind. Please call—”
摘要：

TRIBULATIONFORCE:TheContinuingDramaofThoseLeftBehindBook2oftheLeftBehindSeriesTIMLAHAYE&JERRYB.JENKINSPROLOGUEWhatHasGoneBefore...Inonecataclysmicinstant,millionsofpeopleallovertheworlddisappeared.Theysimplyvanished,leavingbehindeverythingmaterial:clothes,eyeglasses,contactlenses,hairpieces,hearin...

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